Entrepreneurs' Relentless Sales Background

Craig Clemens and Shaan Puri discuss how early sales jobs requiring relentless persistence and handling rejection are common among successful entrepreneurs. They observe that these formative experiences build resilience and teach valuable psychological approaches to dealing with constant rejection.

• At a mastermind event where attendees paid $250, Craig asked how many had early sales jobs requiring relentless effort (200 calls/day or door-to-door sales)

  • Almost everyone in the room raised their hand
  • Craig believes these experiences fundamentally shape successful people

• Examples of these formative sales experiences:

  • Mormon missions - spending two years in isolation selling religion to strangers
  • Door-to-door textbook sales
  • Knife sales
  • Credit card processing sales (both door-to-door and telemarketing)

• The reality of these sales jobs:

  • Extremely high rejection rates
  • For telemarketing: "200 calls, shitty day is one sale, five sales is an amazing day"
  • For door-to-door: "Knock on a hundred doors, one or two or three sales would be an amazing day"

• Psychological approach to handling rejection:

  • Shaan's uncle's method: assign a dollar value to each rejection
  • "A no is worth $50... it was a psychological trick that allowed me to see the no's still as progression"
  • This reframes rejection as progress toward the inevitable yes
  • Helps overcome the fear of rejection that prevents many from succeeding

• Application to other areas:

  • Fundraising for companies - investors rejecting your company feels personal
  • People fail to raise money because they have a "funnel problem" - not enough conversations
  • "It's a numbers game and the way to do it is put a dollar value even on those [rejections]"